


Discoveries

by Kerguelen (Slashmommy)



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Episode - The Tower, M/M, Missing Scene, Past Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-07
Updated: 2013-07-07
Packaged: 2017-12-18 00:10:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/873493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Slashmommy/pseuds/Kerguelen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The prompt was Ronon/Rodney, discovering things in common.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Discoveries

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kajikia](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Kajikia).



> This did not turn out to be a fun slash fic, but a discussion of torture. Go figure... This was originally published some time ago, but I am currently re-publishing all of my fics here (assuming I can find them all).

Ronon watched Teyla as she headed out of the small hut. Before she'd even cleared the threshold, Rodney started pulling their packs apart to find their emergency rations. Ronon agreed with McKay that it was better to go ahead and eat since they had the provisions with them. He didn't really understand why Teyla thought it was such a bad idea. Yes, they had just eaten with the people of the village, but it was better to keep their strength up than to worry about offending their hosts -- especially when Sheppard was being held by this Lord High Protector.

"Give me one of those," Ronon told McKay.

"You want Beef Enchilada, chicken strips, or rice and beans with beef sausage?"

"Does it matter?"

"Not really," McKay said as he tossed an MRE to Ronan. "You think he's okay? What am I saying, of course he's okay. He probably has some bimbo offering herself to him as we speak... You do know that it isn't that I don't agree with you guys that this system pretty much sucks, right? Thing is you've got to admit hungry but safe beats being well fed but Wraith food."

Ronon grunted his agreement as he tore open the MRE and began to eat. He'd been willing to miss many a meal when he'd been running. Even as he ate, Ronon kept watching McKay. He was the only person Ronon knew who could eat as much as himself. It was one of the things he liked about McKay. He just couldn't make the person he knew fit someone who felt it was ever better to go hungry. Of course, he didn't doubt that the man would prefer well fed AND safe.

"I know you think they need to learn to stand up for themselves, but they sort of are in an odd sort of way. I mean, they're picking their battles. They rise up and go against the Lord Protector and then what? The Wraith come back and start picking them off anyway. Why go up against the Wraith if you don't have to?"

"Pride?"

"Oh please! What good is pride if you're dead?! Pride doesn't mean a thing when you're a going to die anyway, when you're fighting for you life, when you've got some psychopath carving things into you," McKay said, getting quieter as he spoke, much to Ronon's amazement. Normally, McKay only got louder.

"Psychopath?"

"Hmm? Oh, it's uh it's someone who -- someone who lacks empathy or conscience and they tends to have poor impulse control."

"Like you."

"What?! I have empathy! I do! Look a psychopath is someone who would do things that no one else would do because we know it's wrong."

"Like what?" Ronon asked, surprised when McKay got even quieter and didn't answer at first. That's when he noticed the way McKay kept rubbing at his arm, like it hurt even though Ronon knew he hadn't been hurt recently, not even in the very occasional sparring session Sheppard dragged him to do. 

"Like torturing someone."

"Torture?" Ronon asked quietly, inwardly cringing as he thought back on his offer to get Kavanaugh to talk when they thought he was the spy.

"Okay, yes, philosophically I can understand that there might be situations where a good person might be called upon to do something they would never normally do. I know you didn't enjoy -- well, you know with Kavanaugh -- I mean, I know you didn't, but you were going to, but there are -- there are people out there who get their jollies from -- from doing that."

"Yes."

"Yes, well, I -- uh I'm just going to go -- use the -- well, the outhouse I guess," McKay said nervously before practically dashing out of the hut. That was pretty telling, but the fact that he'd left half of his MRE pretty much confirmed his suspicions. Growling quietly to himself, Ronon went in search of Teyla. It really didn't take that long to find her, but it did take some time to get her away from the villagers without going back to the hut where McKay would have returned by now. He really didn't want to face McKay at the moment.

"Need to know something."

"Ask. If it is within my ability, I will answer."

"Who tortured McKay?" Ronon asked, watching Teyla jerk in response to the question.

"Where is he? Is he all right?"

"He's fine, physically. It was before I met him, don't know how long before. Worked on his arm."

"Ah. That would be the Genii. It was not even a full year after they arrived in Atlantis. Why do you ask?"

"It came up."

"It is hardly something that Dr. McKay would simply bring up."

"We were talking about standing up for yourself and pride. He said something. Got me thinking."

"It was during the great storm. It was not long after that it was discovered hive ships were heading toward Atlantis."

"Where was Sheppard?"

"He was," Teyla began, pausing to measure her words, "unable to mount a rescue before the interrogation occurred. From my understanding of the events, the interrogation was not lengthy and Dr. McKay sustained no lasting damage."

"Doesn't matter," Ronon said with a glare. "It shouldn't have happened at all." Ronon grumbled before stalking off. When he'd made the offer to get information out of Kavanaugh, he' d figured that Caldwell and Sheppard had probably been there, had at least been trained for it. He hadn't thought it would have been anything more than an intellectual exercise to McKay. No wonder McKay was thinking about his own torture, knowing what his friends and colleagues had been prepared to do for information. At least McKay seemed to think what they had done was different, but it clearly still brought up the past for him. He'd always thought that things would never work out for him and McKay because McKay would never be able to understand the kinds of things he'd been through. Now, he knew that McKay did understand what it meant to be helpless, to be held in place while someone cut into your skin. In the end, it wouldn't be that keeping them apart, but the fact that McKay knew he could take on the other role just as easily. 


End file.
